From the author of the sardonic "The Big Question" and the controversial "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" comes a hilarious parody of cop dramas, police procedurals, and America''s upper crust.

From the Publisher:A satirical work by the former producer of such television programs as The Gong Show and The Newlywed Game finds the untimely murder of a black-sheep heir challenging novice detective Jimmy Netts, who searches through the victim's family and love life for clues leading to more than a few suspects. Original.Art Deco Jr. is heir to a vast fortune, scion of one of America's most powerful men -- Art Deco Sr. -- though by the time we meet him in these pages, Art has fallen into a life of depravity: booze, drugs, you name it. The Deco family is almost too embarrassed to acknowledge him as their own. And by the time Art is found shot dead in his elegant Manhattan apartment, there is a long list of friends and family who may have wanted to kill him -- so the police have their work cut out for them.

NYPD detectives Eddie Roach and Jackie Hallerhan are up against a wall when private investigator Jimmy Netts is called on the case by Art Deco Sr. His first case, no less! Netts teams with the NYPD (mostly because he's not exactly sure how to go about solving crimes, much less understands the procedure, and doesn't have a detective's license) to find out who killed poor Art Jr. It could be just about anyone.

As a storyteller, the infamous Chuck Barris is the blackest comedian there is. As a satirist, his is a wickedly razor-sharp voice. The deadpan dialogue, investigative snafus, crime drama parody, and cast of hilarious characters in Who Killed Art Deco? bring to mind an unholy combination of Agatha Christie and the Pink Panther, with just a dash of Homicide. This is a dark and delightfully funny book from an equally, delightfully, troubled mind.

Annotation:Chuck Barris, the notoriously unhinged host of THE GONG SHOW and author of the pseudo-memoir CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, follows up his surreally futuristic THE BIG QUESTION with a deranged and twisted parody of the detective noir. Art Deco Sr. is one of the most powerful and wealthy men in the world, but his son Art Deco Jr. is the black sheep of the family--a drug addled womanizer reviled by even his own family. When he turns up dead the suspect list stretches a mile long, and it's up to bumbling neophyte P.I. Jimmy Netts to untangle this wicked tangle of sin and satire.

Praise

"Barris['s]...sympathy for the social misfits inhabiting his story is undeniable; that makes it a pleasure to read...." - Zack Handlen 06/25/2009

"If you want to read a book that's a bit like THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS meets MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURTH with a dead body thrown in -- on page 97, to be exact -- WHO KILLED ART DECO? is totally your style." - Carolyn Kellogg 06/26/2009